Even the shortest of short lists of scholars who have made the greatest contributions to environmental economics would include my colleague, Professor Martin L. Weitzman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University. His seminal contributions are legendary, including within the literatures of efficient policy instrument choice under uncertainty, optimal economic growth, biodiversity, long-term discounting, and the economics of catastrophic climate change.
In a future blog post, I will offer a fuller essay on Martin Weitzman’s great contributions to environmental economics, but today I wish to alert the readers of my blog that we – the Harvard Environmental Economics Program – are holding an important event at Harvard on the occasion of Professor Weitzman’s “retirement” (as if Marty will ever really retire!). The event, “Frontiers in Environmental Economics and Policy: A Symposium in Honor of Martin L. Weitzman,” will take place on Thursday, October 11th, 2018, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm (with a reception to follow), at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Nye Conference Room on the 5th floor of the Taubman Building.
The Keynote Speaker will be William D. Nordhaus, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, who will speak on “The Intellectual Footprint of Martin Weitzman in Environmental Economics.”
Following Bill’s keynote address, I will have the privilege of moderating a panel of scholars, who themselves have made important contributions to environmental economics, and who will address various elements of Marty Weitzman’s scholarly work. The panel will consist of the following distinguished participants (in alphabetical order):
- Maureen Cropper (University of Maryland)
- Lawrence Goulder (Stanford University)
- Michael Greenstone (University of Chicago)
- Charles Kolstad (Stanford University)
- Richard Newell (Resources for the Future)
- Robert Pindyck (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- James Stock (Harvard University)
I hope you will be able to join us for this very special afternoon. The symposium is public, but if you would like to attend, it is necessary that you RSVP at https://heep.hks.harvard.edu/weitzman, or by contacting Casey Billings via email or by phone at 617-384-8415.
Finally, I’m pleased to say that the Harvard Environmental Economics Program will host the day’s events with support from the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School.
